The Big UFC Fight Night 140 Weight-Cutting Freakout

Four-time UFC vet Cynthia Calvillo is slated to face Poliana Botelho on the main card of UFC Fight Night 140 tonight. It’s a fight no one cares about, for an event that no one outside of Argentina cares about (because the event is Argentina).

But everyone had a major freakout over Calvillo’s failed weight cut. Or, more aptly, they freaked out over how she looked trying to get on the scale at the weigh-ins.

Yes, she looked like crap.

Actually, she looked like she was dying. And since weight-cutting already has a body count, everyone is waiting for the weight-cutting specter to claim a UFC fighter’s life. Which, sure, maybe it looked grim for Calvillo.

But you know what? This stuff has been going on for decades. I once interviewed a Lion’s Den fighter while he lay in a hotel room tub full of hot water and salt, ’cause homeboy had to cut some serious weight. I’ve also sat in on the process with other fighters. It’s always ugly. Always.

However, all this outcry is meaningless. Because unless you get rid of weight classes (which will never happen), you will always have fighters trying to make weight. And, consequently, you’ll always have fighters endangering themselves .

“Basically what happened is I started my period this week,” said Calvillo, who weighed in at 118 pounds. “We were kind of prepared for it, because we could feel the symptoms, but unfortunately this morning when we got up it was about 5:30 and I had two pounds to go. Then, I couldn’t cut any weight at all from 5:30 to 8 a.m. We tried everything and I could not break a sweat. Even when I got up to the scale, I was the same weight that I woke up at 5:30 in the morning.”

Still, why does it matter? It looked ugly, but no one died, so it’s back to the status quo. Nothing will ever change until we want things to change, and that won’t happen until a UFC fighter does die. Maybe.